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Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Savannah, Georgia

I've said this before, and it's worth saying again. It's great living near family and friends. About a month ago, I was texting my friend Isabel about getting together in Charleston, where she and her husband now live (they are friends of ours from Spokane). She mentioned off-hand that they were going to be in Savannah for the last weekend in February. Very quickly, we decided to join them.

Our friends the Kipes invited us to stay with them for the weekend, which was the perfect time to meet the newest addition, sweet Wren, who turned one month old over our visit. She was the sweetest baby and although we're certain she has her moments, she didn't cry once during our visit. It was lovely to meet her and spend time with good friends. Big sister Graceanna was fun to be around too. She followed "Mista Cahson" around and got him to chase her around and play with her, which he loved too. We grown-ups also got a few minutes to chat and catch up.

Friday evening, we went to dinner. Eric had been teaching all weekend and asked his students for places to eat and they recommended a pizza place called Vinnie Van Go Go's. They're known for their slices, but all of us got calzones, and all of us ate every last bite. It was so good!

We walked off dinner on River Street. It was cold and windy but really fun to explore. Carson and Eric had great fun checking out the huge yachts along the Savannah River. We stopped in a coffee shop to talk and warm up a little before resuming our walk.

The next morning, we got to spend a little more time with the Kipes before heading out to explore the city.

Gracie and "Aunt Lindsay"

I love this picture of the sweet Kipe ladies. Look at Gracie's little smile!

After spending the morning relaxing, we left with the Maertens for some sightseeing. To our chagrin, the day that promised nice weather actually offered wind and drizzly rain. It didn't slow us down too much though and we were able to take in quite a bit of the city.
We walked through this little park, where we saw a statue of John Wesley and I saw the Savannah Theater, where I once saw a musical for Emily's birthday.

We walked to Broughton Street, where we ate an early lunch at Kayak Cafe. The food was good, and we found it funny that it shares a space with a gym!

We went to Paris Market next, where we ran into my sister's best friend and fellow bridesmaid. Small world.

Our next stop was Forsyth Park. It's a Savannah icon, but I'd never been there before!

A man offered to take our picture, and handed Izzy and I sweetgrass flowers.

We got to one end of the park and I spotted a familiar name: Brighter Day. "My sister works there!" I said, and so we went in to see if Becca was working. She wasn't. Next door to that is a building that used to be a hospital, and it's where two of my uncles were born, and behind that building is the place where Becca had her wedding reception.

We went to Foxy Loxy Cafe for coffee to warm us up after a cold walk through the park. It's right across the street from the public library, so we wandered over and looked at that too.

Eric had heard about this huge antique warehouse, so we decided to look around Jere's Antiques, right behind River Street. It wasn't what I was expecting. It was massive, and had huge pieces of furniture. We couldn't have afforded one thing, but it was fun looking at so much history.

We walked back down to River Street after that. These stairs were intense and in the rain, we could all see ourselves tumbling down them. Thankfully, that didn't happen.

We called this bridge the "H" bridge growing up because to us it was shaped like an H. So obviously I still call it that. It's really the Talmadge Bridge.

Jillian alerted us to the fact that there was a free ferry, so we jumped on at River Street and rode around until we were back at our destination. It wasn't amazing, but it was nice to sit, and we got to see River Street from a distance.

Carson got a nap in while we rode.

And Izzy and I documented that we were there and got photobombed by a mystery couple.

The Bays on Bay Street.

Thanks, Carson.

We did some window shopping in the City Market area, which is where we'd eaten dinner the night before. As Isabel and I were browsing one little store, this scene caught our eye: our husbands decided to see if the slices were actually that good. They apparently were.

We meandered around some more, and when we came out of a store, we noticed that our poor husbands were being chatted up by a bachelorette party on one of those traveling bar things.

We went to dinner after that at B&D Burgers, which also came highly recommended. Carson got The Wormsloe, which had fried green tomatoes and pimento cheese. We all regretted the ice cream we'd gotten after the ferry ride, but stuffed our faces anyway.

We went to church at my sister's church the next day, where she and Thomas were leading worship. My parents and Scott joined us there and it was a little family reunion! Dad took a video if you'd like to see. We all went to lunch next at Cancun's, a little mexican restaurant.

After that, we were back on the road. We had an excellent time! We are thankful for friends who are hospitable and welcoming, and friends who are so fun to explore and adventure with!